The invention relates to a door stay which is easily attachable to a door to provide greater or lesser tension actively and consistently in contact with the floor as the door goes through its full movement regardless of height variations and inconsistencies between the bottom of the door and the floor. The result is that the door is held in any predetermined partially opened position by spring tension, but can be moved to and fro by hand pressure.
A door may typically be swung between open and closed positions. When it is closed the latch is locked and holds the door shut. When the door is open, it is usually free to swing to and fro. Wedges and other devices are available to wedge a door open. However, they have the disadvantage that once wedged the door is immovable until the wedge is released by moving the door away from the wedge. Once the door is released it is free to swing to and fro.
In addition, the positioning and insertion of the wedge usually requires a person to bend over, and this may be inconvenient and tiresome.
Various products have been designed to provide releasable door wedges which can be attached to the bottom of doors, and simply operated by the foot. Such devices again, usually function to hold a door securely in a wedged open position and once released, leave the door free to swing.
It is however, desirable in many situations to provide a door which is held partially open, while rendering the door movable by hand to allow free access to a room. Typically these situations occur in the care of small children, the elderly or persons suffering from some kind of sickness. In these cases it may be desirable to leave the door “ajar”, so that if the child or person cries out or moves unexpectedly, the sounds can be heard through the door opening and the care person may react swiftly.
Particularly for example, in the case of child care, it is a common experience for parents or child care persons to simply prop a door open by the use of a shoe or slipper.
These simple homely expedients are however inconvenient and ineffective. In particular, if there is any draft or if there is a wind from an open window the door will swing open and closed and will continually bump against whatever is being used as a door stay. This may awaken a child or irritate a person in a room, and may in itself create a problem for a child care person resting in an adjacent room.
The requirement for a door stay may also arise in many other situations such as bedrooms, bathrooms, offices, kitchens and the like, in all of which situations it may at some time be desirable to leave a door ajar so that it is not fully closed and is not fully open, and is held against random swinging, but is nevertheless rendered movable by hand.
For all of these reasons, it is desirable to provide a form of door stay which engages the floor simply by means of tension and friction. In this way, the door may be held open at any desired position, either being open no more than a few inches, or being swung wider open, and the spring-loaded door stay will hold the door in that position by means of tension and prevent it from being swung to and fro by forces such as drafts and wind.
However, it is clearly further desirable that the tension should not be so great that the door cannot be swung open by hand, by an adult or by a child when it is required.
It is not intended that the door stay should totally prevent movement of the door, and indeed it is considered undesirable that it should do so. It is simply intended that the door stay will prevent uncontrolled swinging of the door in a random fashion.
It is also desirable that the door stay should be capable of being readily attached to a door wherever it is required, and in some cases, it is desirable that it may be readily attached to and detached from the door without the need of special tools and without damaging the door.
It is also desirable that the door stay should be of simple construction without the requirement for special instructions or skill as to installation or use. Further, a desirable characteristic is that the door stay ideally should be moveable readily from one door to another, in at least some embodiments, depending upon the requirements of a particular time or day.
Ease of manufacture, packaging, shipping and sale are also important factors.
There have been designs which have attempted to provide a frictional door stay. These prior designs have failed to address a number of problems. One problem is that using friction and dragging a member over a floor surface can cause damage either to the floor or to the contact mechanism, pulling fibers out of a carpet, for example, or wearing a groove in a carpet or harder floor surface.
Another problem is a failure to address any variation in floor elevation or in the gap between the floor and the bottom of the door as the door is swung. In older houses, this variation can be substantial, but it can also occur in newer houses due to improper installation of the floor resulting in the floor being not level, and/or improper alignment of hinges or casing of the door. Such variations can be a major reason that the door has an unstable position normally and needs a door stay to control it.